DESIGN BEYOND THE HUMAN: An Introduction to The 3D Additivist Cookbook

A talk and Q&A session by Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke on the possibilities locked up in additivist technologies, with particular focus on the work of the critically renowned and emerging artists, makers, and theorists included in the forthcoming 3D Additivist Cookbook.

In this talk the artist-activist Morehshin Allahyari and writer-artist Daniel Rourke will tackle the question of what it means to design beyond the human. Is it better to try to change the world or change ourselves, and what are the implications of taking a position in this debate?

In March 2015 Allahyari and Rourke released The 3D Additivist Manifesto, a call to push additive manufacturing technologies to their absolute limits and beyond, into the realm of the speculative, the provocative and the weird. They then issued a call for submissions for a radical Cookbook of blueprints, designs, 3D-printing templates, and essays on the topics raised by their Manifesto. #Additivism is a portmanteau of “additive” and “activism,” a movement antagonistic to the timescales, infrastructures, and social givens layered into every 3D print. Additivist ideas and objects disrupt common boundaries, exhibiting a conceptual malleability reminiscent of plastic.

This summer Allahyari and Rourke have been artists in residence with transmediale and the Vilém Flusser Archive, where they have edited and finalized the content for The 3D Additivist Cookbook in collaboration with designers Manuel Bürger and Simon Schindele. They plan to publish the Cookbook in a digital edition in late 2016, to be distributed under a Creative Commons License. Inspired, in part, by William Powell’s The Anarchist Cookbook (1969), The 3D Additivist Cookbook contains critical speculative texts, templates, recipes, (im)practical designs, .obj and .stl files, and methodologies for living in this most contradictory of times.

3D PRINTING & ART ACTIVISM WORKSHOP

“Only self-contradictory practices are true in a deeper sense of the word. In our contemporary world, only art indicates the possibility of revolution as a radical change beyond the horizon of our present desires and expectations.”

On Art Activism - Boris Groys

We believe technology can open up new perspectives, providing people with the means to challenge the structures, ideas, and institutions that maintain the status quo. But technological change is - almost by definition - tied to the functions of capitalism: a system that profits the few, often at the expense of civil liberties or the environment.

For this workshop, we call creators and thinkers to challenge and action around a technology filled with hope and promise: the 3D printer. After considering the metaphorical and practical implications of additive processes, and exploring the revolutionary spaces opened up by ‘Art Activism’, workshop participants will devise practical and conceptual 3D printable designs that have radical implications. We will then discuss and explore the potential of ‘Disobedient Objects’ and their influence on social and political movements. We will reconsider activism as a form of ‘change’ and question the notion of ‘problem solving’ using dystopia, horror, and weirding as methodologies.

Some Questions to Consider:

What does it mean to be ‘radical’ in our contemporary society?

How can we use technologies as tools of resistance and collective action?

What does Activism mean today?

Participants will work on devising their own ‘radical’ ideas, and blueprints for a 3D printed design that has the potential as a tool for activism with particular emphasis on sparking creative and critical debate.

Laptop computer Pens, paper Participants are encouraged to look through the reader that we have provided prior to the workshop. The work produced in the workshop will be shared online as part of our additivism.org blog and diverse social network. We encourage participants to continue working on their ideas after the workshop for possible submission and inclusion in the forthcoming 3D Additivist Cookbook - to be published online and in print in late 2016.

Workshop application:
In order to participate in the workshop, please Daniel and Morehshin an email why you want to take part: 3d@additivism.org